Apparatus for making acids.



No. 640,037. Patented Dec. 26, |899. J. V. SKUGLUND.

APPARATUS FOB MAKING ACIDS.

(Application led Dec. 21, 1898.)

(N0 Model.)

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UNTTED STATES PATENT @Erica JEAN V. SKOGLUND, OF BAYONNE, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO IHMSELF, AND ALBERT VINTER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

APPARATUS FOR MAKING ACIDS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters PatentNo. 640,037, dated December 26, 1899.

Application ilerl December 2l, 1898. Serial No. 699,944. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, JEAN V. SKOGLUND,asub ject of the King of Sweden and Norway,resid ing at Bayonne city, in the county of Bergen and State of New Jersey, have invented an Improvement in Apparatus for MakingAcids, of which the following is a specification.

In the manufacture of acids, especially sulfuric acid, there has always been difficulty in obtaining a cheap and reliable material adapted to resist the corrosive action of hot acid in the manufacture or concentration thereof, and the towers that have before been used have required cleaning frequently, repacking, and relining, and the quality of the acid is impaired by the material made use of in the packing and lining.

Towers for the manufact-ure of sulfuric acid are sometimes known as Glovers towers, Gay Lussac towers or concentratingtowers, and the present improvement is available with either of these towers or similar acid-making apparatus.

Quartz has frequently been used for the packing; but the lining has usually been of bricks nominally acid-proof, since it is diliicult to cut the pieces of quartz with regularity, and other materials that have been employed are not acid-proof, but are more or less disintegrated by such acid.

The object of the present invention is to make the tower or other apparatus that is exposed to the corrosive action of acids in their manufacture or purification proof against such acids. I find that a perfect acid-resisting plaster is made by a solution of silicate of soda or potash mixed with acid-resisting mineral substances, such as ground quartz, and this mixture after it has been thoroughly dried and treated with an acid-for instance, sulfuric acid-resists both boiling water and hot acid and does not disintegrate. When the mixture has been dried and treated with an acid, most of the alkali is dissolved by the acid, and the residue is a coherent mass having the quality of resisting the action of acid. I find that finely-ground quartz,

sea-sand, or gravel, which is almost pure silica, or pieces of broken quartz when mixed with the silicate of soda possess all the properties required, and the same are cheap and face the solution of silicate of soda should be of greater specific gravity than when used for filling between horizontal layers of bricks. In the latter instance the plaster should be thinner, so as -to till the interstices to better advantage.

In carrying out this invention the tower or other apparatus may be of any usual or desired size, shape, or construction. Where there is a pan at the bottom and a curtain or other inclosure of lead constructed in the usual manner, the bottom of the pan is covered by a stratum of bricks laid in the plaster. rlhe tops of the bricks are covered with a layer of this plaster about one-half an inch thick, and it is advantageous to add to the plaster gravel to make it sufficiently stiff. The lining is laid up in the usual way, with the exception that the bricks are laid up in the aforesaid plaster, and it is often advantageous to dip the bricks into this plasterbefore laying them up. If there are arches or other devices, they can be laid up as usual, employing the aforesaid plaster, and the entire exposed surface of the lining is to be covered or coated with the aforesaid plaster about one-half an inch thick, more or less. After this has been done a fire is madein the tower itself to dry it as perfectly as possible, and then pieces of quartz or similar material that are acid-proof are packed into the tower to fill the same, and should there be any materials or bodies not absolutely acid-proof they are to be first coated with the aforesaid plaster.

After the tower has been completed, as aforesaid, it is to be ushed with acid,which, combining with the silicate of soda, ,renders the plaster acid and water proof, and this plaster does not crack 0E from the lining, especially in view of the fact that the adhesion between the bricks and the coating is intimate and reliable and forms a solid mass.

In the drawing I have representedby avvertcal section a sulfuric-acid tower with the coating applied to the same at 2 2. The bricks IOO A, forming the lining, and the bricks B at the bottom can be laid up in this plaster as Well as being coated upon their interior surfaces, and the packing of stones, such as quart-z, is illustrated at D.

In consequence of this improved plaster the lining can be made much thinner, and in some instances the bricks may be dispensed with and the lining applied directly t0 the 1o interior of the casing of the tower.

I claim as my invention- An acid-making apparatus consisting of a 

